


Moral Decay

by Chordewa



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 16:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7276234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chordewa/pseuds/Chordewa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: 'Can I request an au where Madara succeeded in making Hashirama agree with him about Tsukuyomi? Like, in the middle of the war Hashi suddenly agrees or something?'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moral Decay

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this to my tumblr a while ago, found it today, and decided to upload it here too. 
> 
> It was interesting and challenging to write.

No matter when you live, there will always be war. He’s always said that, as much as he hopes that will one day change. Judging by the current battlefield, strewn with dead bodies and writhing with the God Tree’s branches, that day won’t be coming soon.

“Change takes time,” Hashirama finds himself saying as he ducks away from the Tree’s hungry, grasping branches.

Madara meets his eyes. The Rinnegan makes them less expressive, but Hashirama can still read the disdain in them. “Mankind has had plenty of time. How much longer would you give them? Though I suppose it’s not your problem once you’re dead, is it? It’ll be everybody’s job, and  _no one_  will do _anything_ about it.” He smiles grimly. “Except me.”

The comment is so outrageously unfair that Hashirama starts to say so, before cutting himself off. Madara clearly felt the problem was his even beyond death. 

The tree makes a grab at Madara’s head. He lops the branch off without looking at it, eyes boring into Hashirama. “I won’t just wait for that future to happen. I’m  _making_ it happen.”

Hashirama knows it’s wrong under the circumstances, but he feels a rush of affection for Madara. How like him, to feel such responsibility for  _everyone_. As Hokage he had tried to do the same, to view the village as his family. Yet there were moments–many of them, over the years after the Valley of the End–where Hashirama knew doubt. What did he really know of true peace? He had never lived in such a world. (And hadn’t he failed to keep children out of danger? Weren’t there children fighting right now?)

It would be nice, to at least catch a glimpse of the world he had once strived to create. Though that would not be possible. Not in this reality.

“What will  _you_ do?” he shouts to Madara now.

“What?”

“If you succeed! What will you do?”

Madara looks shocked. (The last time Hashirama had seen him so surprised, his sword had been sticking out of the Uchiha’s chest.) “Sleep.” His voice is quiet, and he glances up at the bud on top of the God Tree. “I’ll sleep along with everyone else.”

Hashirama wrestles with his conscience. But the idea has taken root deep in his mind, as insidious as a strangling vine. “Then…maybe I could lie down beside you.”

Around them, the branches of the God Tree still, its attention turned elsewhere, leaving them in a bower of silence. Madara does not look pleased. His face has taken on a pinched, suspicious look. “Where has all your conviction gone? Senju Hashirama would never give up on his foolish dream.”

Hashirama steps over the thick curves of the God Tree’s roots and makes his way over to Madara, moving very slowly. Madara still takes a defensive half a step back when he reaches him, but he doesn’t do anything to stop Hashirama from putting his hands on his shoulders.

Hashirama smiles sadly and moves one of his hands to cup Madara’s cheek. They are both made of cold, insensate ashes. “I think I gave up on my  _real_ dream, when you were no longer there to share it with me.”


End file.
